Lou Castelet - Beaumes-de-Venise

Having missed our original place for lunch, we came through Beaums-de-Venise and apparently this was the only place open, so we decided to eat there. The food was terrible the lettuce and cabbage in the salad looked like it was days old, with lots...of slimy black bits, and the tomatoes tasted like, well, the tomatoes you get in the U.S., not like the delicious vine-grown tomatoes you almost can't avoid in Provence. On top of it all, it was ridiculously expensive. This will be permanently marked down as an avoid at all costs Go hungry if necessary.

We called in for drinks and to have a look inside the restaurant. it felt big and impersonal and nothing very special. Glad we decided to eat elsewhere.

I had a nice lunch with fresh salat. The Café Gourmand was beyound my expectations. If to go there, you should really end your metal with a Café Gourmand.

Landed up having lunch here on a Monday only because our preferred restaurants were closed. The food was ok but the service was erratic. My husband ordered a salad followed by a fish dish and myself just a main course salad. I'd finished my salad...long before his main course even arrived. Coffee was nice

If you are looking for food that is "correct," that is, well-prepared and properly-served, an ambiance that is friendly and casual, and servers who are friendly, this is the place to go. This place is unpretentious, but everything they serve is delicious. Everyone in my picky, hard-to-please family found something they wanted to eat on the menu, and everyone was pleased with their choices when they arrived (we ate here three times over the course of a two week stay). Especially good are the moules frites, which are served on Friday evenings. Salmon carpaccio, salmon tartare, steak frites, omelettes, salads: my family and I also tried all of these and loved them. There are plenty of restaurants both in Beaumes-de-Venise as well as in the surrounding towns that attempt "haute cuisine" and don't really succeed. Lou Castelet doesn't pretend to be more than it is, but it succeeds magnificently at doing what it does.